


Reach Out And Touch The Thing That Gets You To The Thing

by redstapler



Category: Halt and Catch Fire
Genre: Chat Logs, Emails, Epistolary, Gen, Yuletide 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 07:54:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13095726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redstapler/pseuds/redstapler
Summary: Cameron Howe, Joe MacMillan, and the Clarks all keep in touch.





	Reach Out And Touch The Thing That Gets You To The Thing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [slipshod](https://archiveofourown.org/users/slipshod/gifts).



> Hi Slipshod! I hope you enjoy this! I had a lot of fun writing this, and it was perfectly timed: I just watched seasons 3 and 4! Happy Yuletide!!

It is Christmas Eve 1994, and Joe MacMillan drops into the chair at his desk in a huff. He stops suddenly when he sees a parcel on his desk. There is no return address, but he does recognize the scrawling handwriting on the label. He opens it to find a clearly professionally-wrapped present. The wrapping is a veritable origami of delicate papers, wrapped to create chevrons and lined patterns around what is obviously a large, heavy, paperback book.

There is a card.

There is a typed out note taped into the card.

 _Bless ‘em, they tried._  
_-C_

Joe carefully unwraps the present, trying to preserve as much of the art of the wrapping job as he can. Within is a large book with a shouty yellow, red, and blue cover: It is the freshly published 1995 edition of the Internet Yellow Pages.

For the first time all day, Joe laughs.

He fires up pine and composes.

\----------------------  
12/24/94 7:32PM ET  
From: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@mcimail.com  
Subj: A Visit From Santa

Cameron,

Thank you for your gift! It was very thoughtful, and will prove an excellent paperweight in the coming years. The gift wrap was exquisite, by the way. I will cherish it always.

I bet you found me using Yahoo!, huh? Those jerks.

-Joe

\--

\----------------------  
Joe MacMillian  
Professor  
\----------------------

\----------------------  
12/24/94 8:12PM ET  
From: chowe@mcimail.com  
To: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
Subj: RE: A Visit From Santa

So you’ll cherish the giftwrap or the book? I’m confused.

Yahoo gave up a lot of your secrets. They’ve accomplished a lot in just a few months.

\--

\----------------------  
Cameron Howe  
“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss” - Douglas Adams  
\----------------------

\----------------------  
12/24/94 8:23PM ET  
From: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@mcimail.com  
Subj: Re: RE: A Visit From Santa

Oh, definitely the giftwrap.

What secrets, pray tell, did Yahoo reveal? I’m a very private person, you know.

\--

\----------------------  
Joe MacMillian  
Professor  
\----------------------

\----------------------  
12/24/94 8:27PM ET  
From: chowe@mcimail.com  
To: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
Subj: RE: Re: RE: A Visit From Santa

For a private person, you sure had quite the press release when you became a professor.

It was the first link that came up in the search results!

\--

\----------------------  
Cameron Howe  
“There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss” - Douglas Adams  
\----------------------

\----------------------  
12/24/94 8:23PM ET  
From: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@mcimail.com  
Subj: RE: Re: RE: A Visit From Santa

The dean, as it turns out, was a Comet fanboy.

What’s your number these days? May I call you?

\--

\----------------------  
Joe MacMillian  
Professor  
\----------------------

Cameron does not reply.

* * *

Cometose42: hey

Camageddon: hey! how’s it going?

Cometose42: doing ok! amused by all my classmates getting psyched over the school’s fat pipe. makes me appreciate that Mom and Dad never bothered with dial-up.

Camageddon: oh yeah? h4x0rring l33t w4r3z?

Cometose42: ha ha. I’ve been hunting down comedy albums on Hotline, did you hear about this?

Camageddon: I have! I don’t suppose you found any good obscure punk on there?

Cometose42: Not really, but I haven’t been looking. It’s mostly the same rotation of Zeppelin, Ani DiFranco, and an endless parade of Phish and Dead bootlegs.

Camageddon: Ha! I think Phish and the Dead are like porn.

Cometose42: LOL, what?

Camageddon: Okay, so you know how Betamax lost to VHS because they wouldn’t let porn be published on their format? And how some of the earliest sites to monetize successfully were porn?

Cometose42: Yeah?

Camageddon: I think the only thing as popular on the internet as porn is Phish and Dead bootlegs. I think they were a solid 3% of all sales made on Mutiny’s marketplace.

Cometose42: God, I hate Phish. Well. I hate Phish fans.

Camageddon: Hey, you’re the one who wanted to follow in your Mom’s and Dad’s footsteps and go to Berkeley.

Cometose42: I know, I know. And they’re EVERYWHERE. You can’t walk five feet without hearing “THE TIRES ARE THE THINGS ON THE CAR THAT MAKE CONTACT WITH THE ROAD” blasting out of a room. HATE.

Camageddon: It’s not like UT was much better. You couldn’t avoid the Dead. Didn’t help that it felt like they were constantly playing Manor Downs and half the CS department always went. Ugh.

Cometose42: Hippies. Yikes.

Camageddon: Exactly. Hippies. Yikes.

Cometose42: Okay, enough hippie bashing. I have to go, I’m meeting a group playing Ultima. Have you seen it?

Camageddon: YES. I’ve been following them. It’s almost enough to make me want to move back to Austin…

Cometose42: Maybe don’t? I don’t think Mom would handle you leaving for another idea too well.

Camageddon: Good point. Okay, go kill some gargoyles or whatever!

Cometose42: l8r!

Camageddon: Bye!

_**Cometose42 (auto response):** I’ve got my eye on you, Lord British!_

* * *

Cameron wakes up from a desperately needed nap when her phone rings. The double digit number on display and blinking light on her answering machine suggests she’d slept through the phone ringing for a while. She scrubs at her face and picks up the phone.

“Hello?” She hadn’t quite been successful at shaking the sleep from her voice.

“Cam?”

“Donna?”

“Yes! Hey! Are you okay? Is this a good time?”

“Uh, yeah, I was just taking a nap. What’s up?”

“I was talking with Haley the other day, and she mentioned you guys talked about file sharing. She and I talked more about that, and the whole Napster mess, and it gave me a idea. What if there was an interface where you could purchase music digitally? You’d still have all the portability and file size efficiency of digital music, but it could be sold, legally, through a distribution service?”

“Do you really think people will pay for what they’ve been downloading for free?”

“I think with the right messaging, people really would. And you know the entertainment industry would love a chance to get a toehold in this kind of sales channel.”

“That’s for sure. I just...I don’t know if the buying public would be into it. How much of a price difference do you think there would be versus like, going to Tower Records and buying a CD there?”

“There would have to be, of course.”

Cameron’s mind began to whirr with ideas, and she grabbed a notepad and a pen to start jotting them down.

“What if...what if you could buy individual tracks from an album? Like, instead of buying a whole album because you like the song on the radio, or tracking down the single, you just buy that one song?”

“Oh, that’s good! That would definitely encourage people to buy the thing rather than just download it. They still get the thing they want, but they also get the satisfaction of supporting the artist.”

“It would be really cool if there was a way to feature independent artists, too? Like, cut out the middleman, cut out the major labels, just use this thing to sell your music. I bet they’d get a way higher percentage of profit.”

“Look at you talking about profits! I never thought I’d see the day Cameron Howe took a positive view of thinking with a business head!”

“Oh come on, I always have. I just didn’t care if something wasn’t profitable. Profits aren’t the only value. But to an independent musician? Absolutely worth considering!”

The conversation goes on for another two hours. By the end of it, the framework for the latest project for Donna’s incubator takes shape.

Symphony Pay launches a year later and revolutionizes the way music is sold.

* * *

 ----------------------  
10/3/99 11:11PM PT  
From: BuddhaGrrl76@aol.com  
To chowe@symphonypay.com  
Subj: Have you SEEN THIS??

Omigod Cam, have you seen hampsterdance.com?

I fuckin’ DIED

-J

\----------------------

10/3/99 11:13PM PT  
From: chowe@symphonypay.com  
To BuddhaGrrl76@aol.com  
Subj: RE: Have you SEEN THIS??

GOD DAMMIT JOANIE I JUST GOT THAT OUT OF MY HEAD.

...see you at dinner next week.

-C

\----------------------  
10/3/99 11:19PM ET  
From: chowe@symphonypay.com  
To: jmacmillian@sarahlawrence.edu  
Subj: Just making sure you’ve seen this…

hampsterdance.com

-C

 

\----------------------  
10/3/99 11:21PM ET  
From: jmacmillian@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@symphonypay.com  
Subj: RE: Just making sure you’ve seen this…

Why did I start talking to you again?

 

\----------------------  
10/4/99 3:20PM ET  
From: chowe@symphonypay.com  
To: jmacmillian@sarahlawrence.edu  
Subj: RE: Re: Just making sure you’ve seen this…

Still in your head?

 

\----------------------  
10/4/99 3:44PM ET  
From: jmacmillian@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@symphonypay.com  
Subj: RE: Re: RE: Just making sure you’ve seen this…

This will be my last conscious thought before I die. Unfortunately.

 

\----------------------  
10/4/99 3:50PM ET  
From: jmacmillian@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@symphonypay.com  
Subj: RE: Just making sure you’ve seen this…

Wait, it got better.

http://www.angelfire.com/id/hern/

\----------------------

Cameron clicks the innocuous looking link to discover...the Jesus Dance. Wow. She laughs and clicks to forward it along to Joanie and Haley.

* * *

 ----------------------  
9/11/01 11:40AM ET  
From: chowe@symphonypay.com  
To: jmacmillian@sarahlawrence.edu  
Subj: Are you okay?

Hey,  
I know long time no talk but uh, please tell me you’re okay.  
-C  
\--------------------  
Cameron Howe  
CTO, Symphony Pay  
650.555.3683  
\--------------------

\--------------------  
9/11/01 11:43AM ET  
From: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@symphonypay.com  
Subj: RE: Are you okay?

I’m fine, thank you for checking in.  
Have you heard from Donna or the girls? I haven’t emailed them yet.  
-Joe

\--------------------  
Joe MacMillan  
Professor  
\--------------------

\----------------------  
9/11/01 11:52AM ET  
From: chowe@symphonypay.com  
To: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
Subj:RE: RE: Are you okay?

I just spoke to Donna, everyone’s fine.  
Joanie’s in Berlin visiting friends, and Haley’s back at Berkeley for the fall semester.

-C  
\--------------------  
Cameron Howe  
CTO, Symphony Pay  
650.555.3683  
\--------------------

\--------------------  
9/11/01 11:43AM ET  
From: jmacmillan@sarahlawrence.edu  
To: chowe@symphonypay.com  
Subj:RE: Re: RE: Are you okay?

Thank god.

-Joe

\--------------------  
Joe MacMillan  
Professor  
\--------------------

* * *

One afternoon, her 40th birthday in fact, Cameron returns to her office at Symphony after Donna had taken her to lunch. There is a gift on her desk with suspiciously familiar wrapping. She cracks up as she opens it as carefully as Joe had, all those years ago.

In the box, which is a box, and not a book, is an iPod.

There’s a note in the box, in Joe’s elegant hand.

 _I totally meant the giftwrap._  
_-J_

Cameron looks up to see Joe leaning in the doorway to her office.

“Hi,” she says with a smile.

“Hi. Can I buy you a coffee?”

“Make it a tea, and yes, I’d like that.”

“I hope you didn’t already have one of those.”

“I don’t! You got here in time, I was days from cracking. So, what, is Joe MacMillan, PC God, Thinking Differently these days?”

“You have to admit, what they don’t have in horsepower, they make up for in style. “

“You always were one for form over function.”

“Can’t get people in the door if they don’t like how it looks.”

There’s an innuendo there that Cameron can’t quite place. Joe looks good these days, as neat and put together as he always was. Gray touches his temples, giving legitimacy to his Distinguished Professor image. It’s a real good look on him.

She gets up from her desk and Joe folds her into his arms. She holds him tight, appreciating how solid and real he feels. They’ve been in and out of touch for so long. She hasn’t seen him in years, and it feels like yesterday and far too long ago at the same time.

Cameron decides that regardless of the form their relationship takes this time, she will never let this much time go between seeing him ever again.

They reach out so often, but so rarely touch. It’s time to change that.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by the wonderful @equilibriumgirl and @rosefox!


End file.
